The influence of chemical treatments on the properties of cantala fiber as well as on the quality of the interfacial bonding of cantala fiber/rHDPE was investigated. The fibers were treated with alkali, silane, and a combination of both. The results showed that the loss of hemicellulose and lignin after the alkali treatment, and the presence of a silane layer on the fiber surface after the silane or alkali-silane treatment, improved the thermal stability, surface energy, and IFSS. The highest surface energy of 45.37 mN/m was obtained during the alkali treatment (NF12). The alkali-silane treatment with 0.75% wt of silane (NSF075) gave the highest thermal stability and IFSS value.

The improvement of mechanical properties of cantala fiber and its composites. Treatments including alkali, silane, and the combination of both were carried out to modify the fiber surface. The influence of chemical treatments on fiber properties such as the degree of crystallinity and tensile strength was investigated. A variety of short cantala fiber reinforced rHDPE composites were produced by hot press, and the effect of fiber treatment on the flexural strength of composites was observed. SEM observations also carried out to highlight these changes. The result shows that alkali treatment improves tensile strength and tensile modulus of alkali treated fiber (NF12) which was predicted as a result of the enhancement of the cellulose crystallinity. In contrast, the tensile strength and tensile modulus of silane (SF05) and alkali-silane treated fiber (NSF05) decreased compared to untreated fiber (UF) which is caused by the addition of amorphous material. The tensile strength of alkali-silane treated fiber (NSF05) was lower than alkali treated fiber (NF12), but the composites prepared with NSF05 showed the highest increment of flexural strength of 25.9%. This may be due the combination of alkali and silane treatment helped in the better formation of fiber-matrix interface adhesion.